Title: Koi Fish and Salmon’s Adventure!
Author: Jeremiah Wang
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1-7960-6173-4
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Pages: 24
Review by: Barbara Miller
Pacific Book Review
Often when adults talk to children, there is a dichotomy of understanding in communication simply due to the generational gap of the ages. In Koi Fish and Salmon’s Adventure! by author Jeremiah Wang, readers learn this book was written when the author was 8 years old. Keeping this in mind while paging this book, I had the impression this book is similar to when two children speak to each other; they talk in a vernacular with their same reference language, which is a bit different to how an adult would have conveyed the story.
This made for a rather unique perspective, especially given the artwork of the illustrations which accompany the sequences of the adventure of a Koi and a Salmon, being friends and playing together. The drawings show a young artist’s use of early techniques to depict what is going on, admirable given the age of the artist yet rudimentary in the genre of many professional artists being commissioned to illustrate children’s books.
The duo has many perils to watch out for, such as fishermen casting off nets, as well as frisky otters and hungry bears looking for a meal. Dangers lurk around every rocky turn of the stream, and Koi and Salmon need all of their wits (and luck) to avoid becoming caught and eaten.
The adventure is well thought out and very engaging, as young readers will undoubtably root for the survival and success of the Koi and Salmon reaching the end of their journey, to play among the weeds. This feeling of returning to the spawning ground, up-river, climbing the waterfall, maneuvering past the otters, bears and fishing nets, is an “age old” instinct playing out in this adventure.
Jeremiah Wang has created a book which will speak to youngsters who will easily be immersed into a different stream – the stream of conscientious, as readers will play along with the protagonists as they traverse within the Koi Fish and Salmon’s Adventure!
